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Word Gems
What is a man but the sum of his thoughts?

 

Editor's Essays:

Personal Statements

 

 

 

Editor's note, September 2008:
 
When I was 12, I responded to an ad on the back of a Superman comic book: "Become A Writer... send $4.95 today." I can see myself now, sitting in my room, a small packet having arrived in the mail, and a new Hawthorne about to be unleashed upon the world.
 
But - I couldn't believe it - out of the packet slides that essential element for all great writers... a tablet of paper! You've got to be kidding me! Hey, but wait! there's also a 10-page report, "How To Become A Writer And Earn Big Money!" And, don't you know, it's filled with sure-fire tips on how to knock 'em dead at Doubleday and MacMillan, like "write on a subject familiar to you" and "know your audience."
 
Well, that was more wisdom than I could take in one day, so I packed it all up for "return to sender." While I was a little miffed at the hucksters promoting this scam, in that moment, I also realized something important: a writer needs to have something to say, something worthwhile to say  - and it suddenly occurred to this 12 year-old ingenue that maybe I didn't have much of note to say. I will tell you honestly that this sentiment has remained somewhat intact for 45 years; and while I've written many things over the past decades, generally I have not featured my own opinions very much but have presented the work of others.
 
I'm not sure why, but that doesn't seem to be enough anymore - so allow me to seek the indulgence of my Word Gems readers as I begin a new series of articles, "Personal Statements," on a variety of subjects. These will feature not only my own views, my own take on the great ideas of history, but, in this process, I will also introduce to you individuals from my past who've helped me along my way. I hope to be writing these essays over the coming many years.
 
Best regards, Wayne P. Becker
P.S. There is a certain sense of continuity that I've built into the structure of these articles; meaning, if possible, you'll want to read them in sequence.
 

at Grandpa's farm, 1953

 

 

 

1.  Personal Statement: My Dad: Humanitarian Service. Dad was the kind of guy who would risk his life for you - the agricultural executive and his cow phone! - the man covered in ice - the classic suffering servant - the high-octane juice.

 

2.  Personal Statement: War. Uncle Joe was a Korean War vet: a war where every GI was a hero - the tale of a "sooner dog" - General Van Fleet believed that the morale of his soldiers would decline unless they were actively engaged in regular operations; for this reason, Van Fleet encouraged the taking and retaking of strategically unimportant hills. These "moral builders," bloody, never-decisive fire-fights, lasting the better part of two years, claimed 60,000 Allied casualties as "peace-talks" wore on.

 

3.  Personal Statement: An Introduction to The Scientific Evidence for The AfterLife - "I'm not allowed to tell you too much about what it's like over here, because some of you might try to end your mortal lives just to get here a little faster" - the AfterLife has nothing to do with religion - it doesn't matter whether one is an atheist, an agnostic, a Catholic, Protestant, or whatever, because under hypnosis, all speak of and describe the same place!

 

4.  Personal Statement: My Mom: Big Doors Swing On Small Hinges: Small Lessons From My Mother That Changed My Life - The Dairy Princess and the True Test of Love - the tiny moppet who would not let go! - the pantheon, the home of the gods.

 

5.  Personal Statement: Grandpa's Farm: Places In The Heart - geography as destiny: "If a place could be a person, this place would be me" - my dear sister, Alice - the people who invented the word "legendary" - hanging upside down, dangling, from the back of a tractor - the little white school house - late night conversations while planting wheat with my cousin.

 

6.  Personal Statement: War II  - Jason, my friend, part-time rock band drummer, but also Sioux Medicine Man - was the Revolutionary War necessary? Canada received its independence less than 100 years after we got ours, but without firing a shot! - in search of a better way to world peace.

 

7.  Personal Statement: Love In The AfterLife: Summerland: The Story of Elmere and Franklin - He goes and gets himself killed in World War I; she never marries and, 75 years later, passes to the Next Life. Will she find Franklin after such a long time? - Summerland is earth-like because many of our feelings, hopes, and dreams will still be earth-bound when we get there - bike riding in the next world - "There is no doubt among psychoanalysts... [they] vehemently deny that there can be [true] love without sex"

 

8.  Personal Statement: THE GRANDFATHER: Killing Ourselves Laughing: The Way We Were - the Grandpa and the war dance; or was he trying to make it rain? - marching out of hell together - why did the boy cross the fence? - the face of evil on a good man - Uncle Bud and the tinker's damn.

 

9.  Personal Statement: Love In The AfterLife: The Story of Della - this new bride's GI-husband was leaving for WWII, but she could not bring herself to see him off, but only wave from the balcony; 70 years later she would understand why - the Granite Club, the polite request, and the juicy snack - the girl in the farmhouse.

 

10.  Personal Statement: How To Raise a Crop of Valedictorians - What Aunt Mag and Betty Sperle Knew and Most of us Don't - how to give your child a superior mind - "there's someone coming through for you... I feel a mother's soul vibration... it's your mother's sister... Magdelane" - the late show with Linda.

 

11.  Personal Statement : True Confessions - when I was 17, one simple question from Dad would send me careening and crashing, spinning out of orbit, send me around the world, away from home and hearth, for decades - "this rage in my heart shut down my emotions, my true feelings, separated me from my true self... and from the people in my life who meant most to me"

 

12.  Personal Statement : True Confessions II -  Doc Goodman, Carrie's Dad, would read the church newspaper during mass - such a radical idea for me then! hey, mister, you can't read a newspaper in church! - internal vs. external guidance systems - the universe and the big smiley face!

 

13.  Personal Statement: Love In The AfterLife: the Troubadour and the Wedding Song - we’re not interested so much in Browning's private opinions, we want to know what Browning saw – a friend, age 60, drops dead while on a cruise - adventures with Supergirl! - "the two halves instinctively, because they are two halves, must recognize one another... the real love is so magnetic, so overwhelming in its attraction"

 

 

 

 

 

Coming soon ...

 

14.  Personal Statement: Part I: "Lies, Damned Lies... and Economics" - let your uncle Wayne explain the facts of life to you - there are only two economists in history, with all the rest as mere commentary - capitalism, the unequal distribution of wealth; socialism, the equal distribution of misery.

 

15.  Personal Statement: Part II: "Lies, Damned Lies... and Politics" - the nature of true leadership and the bantam rooster parade - those who do not know that they're dead - why the worst get on top.

 

16.  Personal Statement: the Light in the Farmhouse that Never Dimmed - my Grandma Becker - she was the only one who gave pause to THE GRANDFATHER... because he could not afford to lose her - "your father's mother just walked through that door with you!" - confessions of Seph - how dynasties begin.

 

17.  Personal Statement: Wealth Creation for Your Family  - an investment advisor for 25 years, this farm boy once worked in one of those tall glass towers, with some of the richest families in North America as clients - what you need to do to prosper during uncertain times.

 

18.  Personal Statement: The Man who Taught me to be Proud of Myself -  Pa - Grandpa Marquart could fix anything, all aided by a vast collection of strategic junk piles - why Edison said that you need a junk pile to be a great inventor - and how all of this helped me to become a writer.

 

19.  Personal Statement: The Lady with whom I Drank Creamed-Coffee from a Saucer - Ma - my Grandma Kuhn Marquart was one of the strongest people I've known in my life; yet, also one of the most sensitive - she  had survived and escaped the brutal tyranny of Lenin's street revolution, to become... a ND pioneer woman - "there's an extremely strong spirit coming through for you... she wants you to know that she is with you."

 

20.  Personal Statement: Felix packed a wit like a Saturday Night Special, and with similar effect. If you tried to get funny with him, his deadpan sass-and-ass comic-power would waltz you around the floor a few times, and work you over... and the next morning, people would be buzzing, "Did you hear what Felix said last night?" ha, ha, ha! But Felix's legacy, for me, is much different. On three occasions, in ways known only to me, this good man would help this young boy's life.

 

21.  Personal Statement: What Ike and JFK tried to tell us - as Henry Kissinger said, sometimes the whole world really is against you - conspiracy theories - finding freedom in an unfree world - the Beast and the False Prophet, and other fun guys.

 

22.  Personal Statement: The earliest, the first document of the New Testament, one of Paul's writings - this letter is considered to be so dangerous to the interests of some religious groups that they forbid their members to read it, unless a minister is there to "keep your little head from getting confused" - what does it really say, and why is it important?

 

23.  Personal Statement: Forgiveness: Do it for yourself, if not for them - "I was shot by the Nazis in Trondheim. I was a little shopkeeper; they shoot. I am held here by my hatred. I cannot throw it off. I beg of you to help me." - "To forgive means to give ahead of time... your attitude is that you're ready to forgive, no matter what comes up."

 

24.  Personal Statement: Love In The AfterLife: the Gay Community - this article is dedicated to my cousin, another Becker, who decided that he needed to go far away from home...

 

25.  Personal Statement: Love In The AfterLife: the Story of Norma and Richard - Norma is my gifted psychic friend, to whom I've referred in several articles. She lost Richard after 47 years together. But Norma has shared with me that they were soulmates... in a literal sense... in a sense that only a psychic, in communication with the Next World, would know. In an interview with me she reveals insights about the soulmate love-connection that few others would be able to offer!

 

 

 

 

British historian Kenneth Clark's Civilisation, a survey of history by reviewing its art, thinks out loud about the effect on the human spirit of heroic architecture; of colossal palaces and gilt-edged villas; of the power-posturing and swooning sensuous beauty of Bernini’s Papal Rome; of the emotional appeal of Baroque ultra-grand staircases and receiving rooms;  of the visual exuberance of French and English nobles' estates - and he concludes that this "sense of grandeur is no doubt a human instinct, but, carried too far, it becomes inhuman. I wonder if a single thought that has helped forward the human spirit has ever been conceived or written down in an enormous room." There are no enormous rooms where I am right now – and I’m glad of it – here, on this mile-long dirt road, which connects Grandpa’s farm to Tom’s. I have seen some of that grandeur spoken of by Clark; and now, far away from all of that dehumanizing excess, my spirit lifts, and I understand perfectly his doubts regarding a single worthwhile thought ever having been conceived in a monstrous room. Some people might think that where I am right now is way the hell out in the middle of nowhere; actually, this dirt road is the center of the universe – a place of exhilarating personal freedom; a place where the mind, unfettered by the mad illusions of an ephemeral world, can experience an intoxicating sense of aloneness, good company with one's own person… but, actually, there is something missing here for me: a responsive quarter-horse; and, mainly, a friend in jeans to share this with…

 

 

 

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